Social Entrepreneurs at the World Economic Forum

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2010-03-04 13:45:00 UTC
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Of all of the world's gatherings, none has a higher-power attendee list than the World Economic Forum. It's a place where government dignitaries rub elbows with top CEOs rubbing elbows with famous athletes and musicians, who are in turn rubbing elbows with...social entrepreneurs? Yes, that's right. This year, the WEF Young Global Leaders program -- which exists to ensure the event supports the next generation of world changers -- includes a number of exemplary social entrepreneurs.

The Young Global Leaders program brings together 200-300 high achievers across sectors to both learn from and interact with one another, as well as actively contribute to the Forum's ongoing proceedings. Participants also attend a series of ongoing events and gatherings, including a Harvard Kennedy School of Government-sponsored continuing education program.

This year's group of leaders includes some highly recognizable names: CNN news show host Rachel Maddow, Twitter founder Evan Williams and musician Wyclef Jean. But for as much as I love those three (and I do), I'm more excited about the social entrepreneurs who will be there.

People like Heather Fleming, who's the founder and CEO of Catapult Design, a nonprofit design firm that focuses exclusively on design for the developing world. In the couple years since they began, they've worked on a wind turbine for household electricity in Guatemala, LED lighting to replace dangerous kerosene lamps in Tanzania and more.

Or Rebecca Onie, who's the founder and CEO of Project Health, a program that dramatically expands the ways that physicians can support their patients. Project Health helps physicians prescribe lifestyle and health choices like food and exercise, and uses a network of undergraduate volunteers to help people access local resources to support such "prescriptions."

And then there are people like Sam Goldman, the founder and CEO of D. Light Design -- a venture-backed social startup that is trying to replace kerosene lamps around the world with portable, sustainable, cheap and safe lighting sources.

These three visionaries are just the tip of the iceberg. The founders or directors of organizations like (red), Green For All, Ubuntu Education Fund and more are also represented as well.

I'll be really interested to see how the voices of these social entrepreneurs will be incorporated into the event itself. It's great to have them there no matter what, but it'd be even better to actually give them the platform to speak directly to the leaders of the world.

Photo Credit: World Economic Forum

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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